Closer and closer yet to a new home

It had taken much longer than she expected, even conservatively. Flying straight across the Southern Continent - not even the whole of it, but just enough - because Holders couldn't be trusted to give coordinate visuals (because the holders didn't have coordinate visuals to be starting with), and 'a canyon' wasn't enough to find where their kin had been sent off to.

And so they flew, and landed to talk to holders, and betweened back to their mountain valley for Thread, and then continued on. Hunting, holders, repeat.

Finally, finally they'd found a Hold that knew where the dragons were based, and could better direct them. And so they'd followed the river, hoping they'd have a sweeprider or watchdragon pair, not trying to stay hidden. Twenty-some-odd dragons, most half-grown or more, were not hard to miss, so though they still had dragonlengths still to go, ideally they'd be spotted before long.

Anedith, in fact, worked to speed it along - broadcasting as far as she could, Hello? We're here! Tsaveth, Fillioth? she tried hopefully, cycling through the names of her clutchmates. Treyath? Devonith? Hello! We're here! Her range was not as far as a queen or larger dragon, but she was giving it her absolute all. And Anedith had quite a lot of all to give, especially boosted by the small flight of dragons she'd helped train.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:06 pm

Anedith's wingbeats faltered, skipping a beat just for a moment. But she was, as ever, quick and agile, and recovered quickly. Future? Why should we - no, I am Anedith, of Eastern. Olenath quarantined the weyrlings, and we are left with this one, last class. May we come to your canyon? We have not seen other dragons in so long, and there was a Fall, and I felt queens, the wonder in her voice came through strongly there, tied in with all the emotions she and her charges had experienced, this last stretch of time.

Natalina sat up, scanning their airspace, and touched the ridge in front of her, so Anedith would stop and let the brown (brown! had others survived Eastern?) reply.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:22 pm

Down, she sent to the wing staggered, well in formation, behind their bronze and cobalt leaders, picturing where she wanted them to land along the riverbank. Then, taking a moment to fix their surroundings in her head, the green sent their visual back to the brown, staying aloft to meet him.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:00 am

Basilath received the coordinates, and transmitted them to D'caen. The two of them held the view, then jumped.

Three seconds or so later, they broke out over a picturesque bend in the river. Nearby, a (lovely, noticed Basilath) green hovered, watching them.

Greetings! My rider would speak with yours. Shall we land? Basilath asked. For some reason, D'caen felt like it was necessary to handle this unexpected group carefully. He couldn't have said why, except that he couldn't imagine what it had been like for them... cut off from the rest of the world.

Shall I tell Yllaveth what is happening? Basilath asked, excited.

In a moment, D'caen said. Let's talk to them first. Br'son will have questions, let's try and get as many answers as we can up front.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:33 am

Anedith landed just as agilely and neatly as you please, the rising relief in her rider bringing a bit of showiness back to a green that had been as serious and nurturing as she could, for quite some time.

She glanced back at the neatly arranged weyrlings, letting them feel her pride and reassurance. This would be ok. It would. We are glad to find you, she said to Basilath, folding her long wings back comfortably.

Natalina dismounted - not quite as graceful as her partner, perhaps, but it had been a long day. Stretch of days. Months. Whatever. She moved purposefully in front of her green, swinging off her helmet and reflexively smoothing her bound hair. Though she was fairly sure she recognized the name Basilath - Parazath's clutch after theirs? - she didn't open with that, feeling hopeful and cautious and worried and not yet letting herself believe it was over. "Natalina of Anedith, brownrider. We've been hoping to find other dragons for quite a long time, now."

Last edited by weyrwolf on Wed Jan 04, 2017 7:36 pm; edited 2 times in total

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 7:46 pm

"You're from Eastern?" she asked, just short of brisk, as she knew the answer. "You may remember when the weyrlings were sent away, when the...the sickness spread. Firene asked us to go with them, since the Weyrlingmaster was already..." Natalina shook her head slightly, trying to keep her thoughts from going too far down that road. "We went to a mountain valley not far outside of Amblin Hold, and for a while Firene would visit, keeping Olenath higher up. We started with five classes, and this one, the youngest, sired by one of the cobalts, is all that's left." Forcibly she kept her voice business-like, but she couldn't keep it from looking like the effort it was.

"I thought we might be the only ones left, when no one came to fetch us - we hadn't seen wings over Amblin in months for Fall - and then during a Fall a few months ago, Anedith felt not one queen, but multiple. We were too far for her to be heard, and had no coordinates on where to go, so we've been making our way overland, betweening back to the valley during Falls, since."

She stood in the posture of one giving a report, and was doing a good job of it...but again, the effort to speak as though this was all normal, a sweeprider reporting to a 'second, was evident.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:08 pm

"So you had... Faranth..." D'caen trailed off, eyes wide as he looked at this woman with new respect.

"Ah, yeah, from Eastern originally. From White Lightning Weyr now. Do you remember when the mu... ah... new colors were exiled? That's where they went. Or that's what they built at the place where they went. It's a little complicated. But we've a proper Weyr, though it's in a canyon instead of a caldera. And our weyrfolk are basically criminals and smugglers. But we've six queens, and more new colors have emerged. We've survived. Let me just..." he trailed off again, aware that he was babbling, and took a moment to ask Basilath to call back to the Weyr.

Yllaveth says to bring them immediately to the river. They are very, very welcome. She is happy, Basilath added, his own mindtone gleeful. Ever since Imioth's victory, Basilath had taken it into his head that he could fly the senior queen. So in his mind, her happiness was of paramount importance. And if he were the cause of that happiness... so much the better.

"Weyrsenior Br'son says to bring you all in to the Weyr immediately. He's overjoyed to hear that you exist. Can you come now?" D'caen asked with a smile. Because he was happy, too. This was good news for everyone.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:20 pm

"Yes," she breathed, and that one word made it utterly clear how very, very much she wanted to do so. "We thought it would be the new colors, when we were all that were left." Thank everything exile hadn't been the end of them, that it wasn't more guilt to carry. That there was hope. The rest - six queens? Weyrsenior? Criminals and smugglers? - could wait.

Natalina glanced back, but hardly needed to. As always, Vawnali and Rh'var presented the united front at the head of their class, and the weyrlings had stayed mounted and alert, despite everything. For a moment, she thought she would lose her careful control, but pulled both eye-moisture and overwhelming relief back just in time. "Would you share the coordinates? And we'll follow on your call."

Be ready. They welcome us. We will find a home there, Anedith sent to the dragons with them. Counting the lizards before they were hatched a bit, perhaps, but all that overwhelming relief Nat was trying to hold back had to go somewhere, and so it came spilling out of her green.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:28 pm

"Of course," D'caen said. He gave her his best, happiest (albeit a lopsided) grin and turned to mount Basilath.

As a rule, D'caen wasn't introspective. He tried to stay away from too much of that sort of thing. He was a straightforward man who took pride in saying what he meant and doing what he must. But sometimes, even he could see that a moment was important.

So he took his time building the mental picture of White Lightning Weyr. He oriented his coordinates such that they'd arrive from upriver, looking down on the snake of the Blackwater as it wound through the red rock canyon cliffs. The sun would glint off of the rapids in the shallows, and the bathing pools they'd built would look deep and inviting. D'caen fed this image to Basilath, who passed it on to Anedith before flinging himself into the air.

Subject: Re: Closer and closer yet to a new home Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:37 pm

Anedith sent back a wordless touch of thanks, and then reached out to the dragons she'd come to know so well as her rider remounted. Launch, she said, as Natalina signalled, and when they were all aloft (showing themselves to excellent effect, with all things considered) she gave the command.

The skies were empty, the time between perfectly held, and then...

Ah... she managed, a perfect synthesis of her and her rider's reaction as they took in the spread below (and the weight of so many other dragon minds, suddenly apparent).